October 12, 2006- a day that will go down in NCAA sports history for years to come. On that night, the University of Miami Hurricanes hosted the Florida International University Golden Panthers at the Orange Bowl. This was the first meeting between the schools, and hopefully the start of an inner-city rival. Well no one would ever imagine, that a particular October evening would turn into what it did.
I have been a season ticket holder since 1997, and I really enjoyed watching games at the Orange Bowl, however this particular night was special for me. I was approached by a member of the University of Miami football marketing team, they had asked myself and my aunt to participate in a football toss game, in which I was very familiar with. The idea of the game was to throw as many footballs into a hole, given 30 seconds. Of course, I said yes.
With five minutes left in the first quarter, my aunt and I met the woman in front of the gates, and were later escorted to the field. I was very happy, because I was actually on the field. A few of my co-workers were actually at the game as well. My name was announced over the loud speakers throughout the entire stadium, and for 30 seconds, I was the center of attention, in front of thousands of fans. Unfortunately, I had lost, however it was an experience, that I would never forget.
After that moment, I was floating onto cloud nine, then trouble started brewing. What I was about to witness was the scariest thing in the world. A fight started to break out onto the field, which cleared the benches of both teams. I have never in my life as a football fan, saw anything like this. The fight continued to what seemed like an hour, then I look to my left and fights started breaking out in the stands.
At that point in time, I was afraid for my life, because I didn't know if a riot was going to break out. My dad and aunt wanted to leave, because things were completely getting out of control. I don't even know how many fans were arrested, but eight FIU and five Miami players were ejected from the game.
There was a lot of trash talking going on days prior to the game, which then escalated onto the field. The schools are close in distance together and a lot of the players went to high school together, etc. and things got out of control onto the field.
After looking at the 2007-2008 schedule I was shocked to see that Miami and FIU will be playing each other again, especially after what happened last year. I cannot believe that the athletic directors of the two schools agreed to play again, I have a feeling that we are going to have a repeat from last season.
For more information on the brawl, visit Wikipedia.
